A Half-step Forward In Kuwait

May 19, 2005

Kuwait's all-male parliament voted this week to extend a measure of political freedom to women -- 14 years after a U.S.-led coalition liberated that Persian Gulf country from the clutches of Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

The leap forward is welcome, although it would be more accurate to call it half a leap.

Women may no longer be barred from voting or from holding public office, members of parliament decreed by a vote of 35 to 23. That there were 23 members who still oppose universal suffrage is stupefying. This is, after all, the 21st century, and Kuwaitis consider themselves in the forefront of progress in the Third World.

But modern Kuwait, with its shopping malls, iPods, skyscrapers and superhighways, until now has yielded the right of way to its powerful misogynists. One Islamist who voted against universal suffrage warned that allowing women to serve in parliament would make them ``responsible for the masses, and that is anti-Islamic.''

Opponents of universal suffrage lost the argument, but not entirely. They succeeded in amending the law to stipulate that any female politician or voter must ``abide by Islamic law.'' That is taken to mean, among other likelihoods, separate but equal voting booths and a dress code to ensure that women remain draped in robes.

Kuwait's parliament didn't exactly pave the way for human rights. Women vote and serve in high-level positions in most Arab countries. There are exceptions. A few governments, mostly notably America's ally Saudi Arabia, still deny basic rights to women, who cannot even drive automobiles or leave their homes unaccompanied by male family members.

News reports from Kuwait described scenes of cheering and dancing after the vote. After the initial euphoria, reality will return.

Universal suffrage shouldn't be confused with democracy. Although Kuwaiti women may soon be able to vote and run for office, they and their male colleagues must defer to members of the Al-Sabah dynasty, which has ruled since 1759. Whatever the emir wants, he gets.

That, unfortunately, is the norm in the Arab world. Women in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia already may vote, but no one chooses the men at the top -- the kings, emirs and generals who have the final say. Remember that Saddam Hussein allowed women to vote and appointed women to cabinet posts in his republic of tyranny.